Boston Globe - November 1, 2002
Former Globe publisher takes magazine post
By Mark Jurkowitz, Globe Staff, Globe Columnist, 11/1/2002
The American Prospect magazine - on the eve of a redesign and restructuring of its publication schedule - announced yesterday that former Globe publisher Benjamin Taylor will become the executive editor of the staunchly liberal journal of politics and culture.
The decision to appoint Taylor was based on ''his whole package of managerial skills, his journalism skills, his politics,'' said American Prospect publisher Robin Hutson. Taylor succeeds Harold Meyerson, who became the executive editor 17 months ago and is now the magazine's editor at large. According to Hutson, Taylor will split his time between Boston and the magazine's editorial office in Washington, D.C. She also said that he is not a funder of the publication, noting, ''It's not a philanthropic arrangement, it's journalistic.''
Taylor, 55, said yesterday that he would work closely with magazine founder and co-editor Robert Kuttner. ''I think it's a tremendous time to be engaged in journalism,'' he said. ''We think there's a very solid opportunity ... to help set an agenda for the liberals and the left.''
The new executive editor began his career at the Globe in 1972 and moved from reporter to executive editor to publisher. In July 1999, The New York Times Company - which bought the Globe from the Taylor family in 1993 - replaced Taylor as publisher with Richard H. Gilman. Since then, there has been speculation that Taylor was eager to return to journalism. He is one of a group of majority investors in the year-old newspaper Women's Business New York.
The American Prospect, which debuted in 1990, was the brainchild of Globe columnist Kuttner and Princeton professor Paul Starr. Intended as a counterweight to the intellectual momentum behind the conservative movement in the post-Reagan era, the magazine has had to search for a clear identity and hustle to find funding. Three years ago, in an effort to become, in Kuttner's words, ''a magazine rather than a recovering journal,'' the publication underwent a redesign, punched up its editorial focus, and moved from a bimonthly to a biweekly publication schedule.
In February, the Prospect, with a circulation estimated by Hutson as about 45,000, will expand its feature coverage, undergo another redesign, and move to a monthly schedule. ''It's a more natural schedule,'' said Taylor. ''I think we can do a good job in a monthly format.''